RPG-a-day 2017: Day 13

August means the #RPGaDay program is live. We are now in the second week of this month-long series. The RPG-a-day project is hosted again at Brigade Con blog, were you can find the full list of questions.

Day 13

Describe a game experience that changed how your play.

Another interesting question from RPG-a-Day, yet I keep circling back to the same answers. Sadly, today brings me back to the most impactful session noted in my reply for Day 7. This game experience was the session in the Throne Room, which brought our campaign screeching to a halt, and shattered the gaming group.

You can look elsewhere for the background to this event. The focus in this reply is on the changes this infamous session brought to my game. The mismatch in expectations, which my have been the cause of this breakdown in respect and trust, lead to more prominent social rules in the game.

Top of this list is the Social Contract. This explanation of expectations and obligations is revisited by our group at the start of every campaign. The framework we currently use is not changed much from the initial version I created years ago. Yet, there is always room for improvement, and as our group expands again, there are more perspectives to consider.

My second addition was the “Please move on” card, our equivalent of the X-card. These home-made cards are kept in red sleeves, so they are also known as Red Cards. To date, no Red Card has been used in the game, but I am pleased to have them available to everyone. They may prove useful for the game of The Happiest Apocalypse on Earth, pencilled in for Halloween this year.

As it turns out, the dramatic events in the Throne Room were beneficial for the campaign as a whole. It is just such a shame it took the destruction of friendships to achieve this improvement.